Contents
Overview
Scenario
Running the Demo
About Active Endpoints

Quote Processing Demo User Guide

Overview

This sample demonstrates how Web Services and human workflow can be used together within a single business process orchestration. The demo interfaces with JBoss Drools and leverages ActiveVOS Central for working with human tasks. Complex Event Processing (CEP) and custom reports are highlighted.

Scenario

Title: Quote Estimation Process

Actors

Bob: Customer

Roger: Chief Estimator

Stan: Interior Specialist (mechanic)

Chris: Exterior Specialist (mechanic)

Fred: Power Train Specialist (mechanic)

Mike: Manager

Description

Vintage Old Stock is a fictitious company specializing in the restoration of classic cars. As the company grew, it quickly realized that automating some of its internal processes would not only result in increased efficiency but also provide a way to analyze business patterns, identify and react to bottlenecks, and improve customer satisfaction.

Process Steps

The Quote Estimation Process is the first process to be automated by Vintage Old Stock. The process contains the following high-level activities:

Bob submits a request for an estimate of the cost to renovate his classic car
The request is validated using a rules engine to ensure that the year / make / model can be serviced by Vintage Old Stock
An acknowledgement email is sent to Bob
Roger is notified that a new request has been received
Roger can provide the estimate himself, or delegate the estimation work to one or more of the specialists on staff (Stan, Chris and / or Fred)

Roger reviews the suggestions from the specialist(s) and prepares the final estimate

The final estimate is sent to Bob via email.
The estimate remains valid for 15 days. If Bob doesn't approve the work within that timeframe, Roger will be notified so he can contact Bob and possibly try to save the deal.

Benefits of Automation

Using ActiveVOS to automate this process gives greater control and visibility:

Employees at Vintage Old Stock are automatically notified of pending tasks via RSS
Task deadlines and escalations can be automated
Customers can obtain the status of a request online
Email is automatically generated and sent to the customer, allowing Roger to focus on more important things
Managers can view work queues and reassign tasks as needed
Complex Event Processing is used to alert managers if estimates are taking too much time on average
Managers and IT can create custom reports to analyze active and completed processes

Running the Demo

The demo application takes you through the estimation process from the viewpoint of the customer, the estimator(s), and the IT / Management. With those roles in mind, and assuming the setup instructions have been carried out, the following links are used for the demo:

Actor(s) / Action	URL	ID & Password (same value for both)
Bob: Enters a request from the Vintage Old Stock homepage	http://samples.activevos.com/AVQuoteClient/index.html	No credentials required
Roger / Stan / Chris / Fred: Claim and complete estimates using ActiveVOS Central	http://samples.activevos.com/activevos-central/login.jsp	chief interior exterior power
Mike: Views details of running or completed processes using the ActiveVOS Console	http://samples.activevos.com/activevos	ccuser
Mike: Views reports and notifications from ActiveVOS Central	http://samples.activevos.com/activevos-central/login.jsp	manager

Bob: Submits a Request for Quote

1) From within a browser, navigate to the Vintage Old Stock homepage and click on 'Get a quote.'

2) Submit information about yourself and your car. Reqired fields are:

First Name
Last Name
Your email address (must be a valid address)
Make
Model
Style
Year
Condition

Note: We’ve implemented validation of input data in two places.

Name and email validation are handled within the form, resulting in a warning that appears in the browser and the request not sent to the server.

Car information is validated as part of the process orchestration. A rules engine is invoked to ensure data is complete. For instance, based on the year of the car a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) may be required before the final contract is signed.

3) A response is returned to the browser containing a Reference Number, date and status of the request that was just entered.

A status of 'Pending' indicates the following has happened:

A process instance was created (the reference number generated is the process instance ID)
A web service call to a Java-based rules engine was made to validate the request and assign a quote time-to-live
An email was sent to the email address provided
A task was created for the chief estimator to carry out the estimate
An ActiveVOS process is in a 'running' state, waiting for the estimation work to be carried out

A status of 'QuoteRequestFault' indicates the following:

A process instance was created (process ID = reference number displayed)
The rules engine determined that the car information was incomplete or in error
The process is now in a 'faulted' state

Roger (and Specialists): Carry out the Estimation Task

The ActiveVOS task management system creates a new estimation task for the chief estimator. Roger (the 'chief mechanic') is notified of new requests from the ActiveVOS Central task list, or subscribes to it using RSS so he can be notified by other means.

1) Log into the ActiveVOS Central task list with the credentials of chief / chief.

2) By default, you should be placed in the 'open / unclaimed' task list view. If not, select it from the tree view on the left navigation pane.

3) Select the task you generated in the task list by identifying the Reference Number in the subject line.

4) Click the claim button

to claim and start the task.

Information about the request is displayed in the ‘Inquiry’ tab.
Results from the call to the rules engine can be seen in the ‘Pre-Analysis’ tab
The ‘Estimate’ tab is where Roger will provide the estimate details.

5) From the ‘Estimate’ tab Roger can:

Complete the task himself

Select the 'Completed' radio-button
Provide a Completion date using the date-picker widget
Provide a Total cost (use a numerical value e.g. 5600)
Complete the task by clicking on the button

Delegate the estimation to any of the specialists

Select the 'In Progress' radio-button
Check any / all of the specialists to delegate work to
Complete the task by clicking on the button

If you delegated work to a specialist, you will need to:

Log Off as the chief
Log On as the specialist(s) (e.g. interior, exterior, power)

Provide cost information and Complete the task
Log Off as the specialist(s)

Log On as the chief when all specialists have completed their tasks
Complete the task as described in the first bullet of step 5

When the estimation task is completed by the chief, an email is automatically sent to the customer, but the Quote Process remains in a 'running' state. It will remain in that state while the time-to-live of the quote remains valid. Until then a customer can inquire on the status of the quote.

Mike: ActiveVOS Console

The ActiveVOS Console provides a wealth of information for both business users and IT personnel. For security reasons, access to various pages within the console can be restricted from use.

Process instance information and data logs are persisted to a database. By using the console, it is possible to view details about processes in any state (running, completed, suspended, faulted, etc.). It is also possible for administrators to suspend or terminate running processes. If a process is suspended, process variables can be modified and the process can be resumed – allowing owners or administrators the ability to 'fix' a process that may be in trouble.

A typical use case for looking at the details of a process instance is to debug a process that has faulted. Root-cause analysis is a case for examining a process that completed normally - for instance an auditor may need to determine exactly what happened to cause the outcome of a specific process instance.

1) Log into the ActiveVOS Console at http://samples.activevos.com/activevos/home.action

If your Console has been secured, you will be prompted to log-in as a user with admin priveleges (as seen here):

2) From the home page, navigate to the Active Processes listing and identify the process instance

3) Click on either the Process ID or Name to display instance details

4) You're presented with a graphical representation of the process (shown below)

The process graph is annotated with intuitive markers to display activities that completed, faulted or were skipped

From the Outline view (shown above) you can:

Select process variables, activities and objects – details are displayed directly under the process graph
Suspend or terminate running processes, and resume a process if it’s been suspended

From the Log view

You’re presented with a sequential log of activity and data change events. You’ll notice that by running your mouse over items in the log synchronizes to the corresponding activity in the graph.

Double clicking on a log entry will basically 'freeze' all variables at that exact point in time. When the 'execution point' is frozen, if you go back to the outline view and select a variable, you will see the value of the variable at the time of the execution point – even if the variable was within a loop.

Mike: Viewing Reports and CEP Notifications From ActiveVOS Central

The management team at Vintage Old Stock has decided that if the average response time to respond to a quote request exceeds 30 minutes, Mike should be notified so he can immediately check to see if it's a sysem issue or simply a matter of delegating work to others in the organization. The power of CEP is in the fact that thresholds can be defined, and actions taken based on key performance indicators of multiple running and/or completed processes (not just a single process instance).

1) Log into ActiveVOS Central as manager / manager

2) Select the Open category in the Task List

If in the past 1 hour window, the average response time of estimates has exceeded the 'allowable threshold' of 30 minutes, Mike will be assigned an open task to research why requests are taking longer than expected

3) To see how much work is in each persons work-queue:

Select the Reports category from the left navigation pane in ActiveVOS Central
Select the Task Management folder, then the 'Work Queues and Assignments' Report

When a report is selected in the list, a preview is provided (the preview is a static image)
To run the report, double click on the report name in the list or choose the 'Open in Tab' button

Because Mike is defined as a 'Business Administrator' of each of the estimation tasks, he can reassign the task to someone else's work quque by selecting the task in the task list and selecting the Reassign button

About Active Endpoints

Active Endpoints (www.activevos.com) is the leading developer of visual orchestration systems. ActiveVOS empowers line of business project teams to create applications using services and industry standards, making their businesses more agile and effective. Active Endpoints’ ActiveVOS promotes mass adoption of SOA-enabled applications by focusing on accelerating project delivery time with a standards-based, easy to use system. Active Endpoints is headquartered in Waltham, MA with development facilities in Shelton, CT.

To find out how Active Endpoints can help your business, visit www.activevos.com, call +1 781 547 2948, or email us at info@activevos.com.